The Press and Empire in Portuguese Africa, 1842–1926

Abstract

The press was critical to the consolidation of the Portuguese colonial empire in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Africa, as well as to the European elites in Africa, who made it a central arena for voicing their criticisms of metropolitan Portugal’s policies and to argue their claims for local political reforms, economic policies and financial resources. For the African elites, too, it was an important means of resistance against the colonial project and imperial policies. This chapter discusses the relations between the press and empire in Portuguese Africa in the light of the different sociopolitical dynamics of Portuguese colonialism, exploring the roles performed by journalism and identifying the main features of the press system.